The present invention relates generally to the field of customized telecommunication services, and more specifically to providing an efficient interface between a service management system that embodies telecommunications services and a service activation controller that receives and enters service orders into such a system.
The telecommunications industry is constantly providing new services to its customers. As the number and type of services increases, so too does the demand for systems for setting up and maintaining these services efficiently. One system, the Advance Intelligent Network (AIN) provides several services, but requires trained personnel to effect these services.
When a customer desires a new service or a change in service in one current system, the customer's local telecommunications site, such as the local telephone company, sets up a service order that is sent to a service activation controller (SAC) which transmits the service request to a service operator at a service management system. The service operator generates a call processing record (CPR) to implement the new or changed service by entering the service request to a service management system, such as Bellcore's Service Provisioning and Creation Environment (SPACE.RTM.) system.
A CPR defines how the telephone switching system processes a received telephone call for a particular customer. The CPR includes several nodes each containing instructions for performing a service. The incorporated patent applications discuss different methods of creating and changing data within the CPR.
To activate a CPR, the service operator must transfer the CPR to an integrated service control point (ISCP), which implements the corresponding services when the customer calls or is called. As explained in the incorporated patent applications, switches in the network route received calls to an ISCP. A multi-services application platform (MSAP) in the ISCP accesses a CPR, based on received calls, processes nodes in the CPR and issues corresponding call processing instructions back to the switch. The switches then route the calls based on these instructions.
A service operator may create the CPR from a template as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,853. This patent shows sample templates that include logic and data values. Templates aid in the construction of CPRs. It is impractical and inefficient to require a service operator to build the same graph for every customer requesting the same service. Templates are a "form" for creating a customer specific version of a service. Customer specific versions of a service are established by providing values for "customizable" expressions or variables in a node, branch, or call variable within a template. In this manner, the template allows the same service to be provided to more than one customer without having to rebuild the entire graph or redefine generic call variables in the CPR establishing the service. Using this system, the service operator must individually insert data in templates to create CPRs and then sequentially and manually activate the CPRs. Activating a CPR involves sending the CPR to the MSAP and ISCP to allow access to the CPR during call processing.
FIG. 1 shows a template with a call variables window 100 and a logic graph 110. Logic graph 110 includes nodes that correspond to call processing instructions. Call variable window 100 includes the name of the call variables, the data type of each variable, such as integer, and, either a value or a location where the call variable is defined such, as in another template or at a global site.
To provide more efficient and faster services to customers, it is desirable to provide a system that interfaces the SAC to the service management system and allows for the automatic generation of a call processing request. Such an interface should also allow entry of customer information at a remote site, such as at a local telephone company, and transmission of the information to the central service management system for automatically generating and activating a CPR. Moreover, such a system should allow multiple requests to be sent in one message and activated together or at a later time, as specified by the SAC.